Ecotality to Install 225 Electric-Car Chargers at Kroger Stores

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Ecotality Inc., the operator of the
second-largest U.S. network of public electric-car charging
stations, plans to install about 225 chargers at Kroger Co.
stores, mostly in California and Arizona.

Adding chargers in markets including Phoenix, San Diego and
Los Angeles will bring the total number at the nation’s largest
grocery chain to about 300, according to a statement today from
the companies.

Ecotality, based in San Francisco, is focusing its
expansion efforts in the West, where about 75 percent of
electric cars are sold, said Chief Executive Officer Ravi Brar.

“We have an immense amount of information coming from that
network that tells us the frequency of usage, duration of usage,
reliability factors and all sorts of info that lets us hone in
on a particular location and say, ‘That one needs an
expansion,’” Brar said in an interview.

Each company is investing about $1.5 million in this
expansion, Brar said. Kroger already has 60 charging station in
Oregon and Washington state and 14 in Texas.

Ecotality has about 4,000 public chargers, a figure that
may expand to 5,000 by the third quarter, Brar said. Drivers pay
between $1 and $2 an hour to charge vehicles at its Blink
stations.

Kroger uses data from the charging stations to study the
shopping habits of electric-vehicle-driving customers, who
typically spend 30 minutes longer in stores than owners of gas-powered vehicles, said Brian Koontz, Ecotality’s director of
strategic corporate development. Kroger may eventually use the
information to promote specific products to those drivers.

“Kroger really saw the value, early on, in having a
consistent, interconnected network,” Koontz said. “It’s not
just about putting charging stations out there -- it’s about
having a smart network.”

Ecotality last month announced an agreement to link its
network with the largest U.S. system, operated by Campbell,
California-based ChargePoint Inc., giving drivers access to
about 90 percent of the approximately 15,000 stations in the
U.S.